Roslyn Oades

About

Roslyn Oades is an award-winning theatremaker & dramaturg based in Naarm/Melbourne. Best known for her innovative work in the field of headphone-verbatim and audio-driven performance projects, her original works for stage include Hello, Goodbye & Happy  Birthday (Malthouse/Melbourne Festival/National tour), I’m Your Man (Belvoir/Sydney Festival/National tour), Creation Creation (for Windmill Theatre), Stories of Love & Hate (Utp/STC), Fast Cars & Tractor Engines (Utp/NSW tour), Cutaway–A Portrait (Vitalstatistix), At the Hip (HotHouse Theatre) and the immersive work for children, In A Deep Dark Forest (Inhabitors/Arts Centre Melbourne). Her works have toured nationally with Performing Lines and I'm Your Man was adapted by SBS into an online interactive documentary of the same name. Roslyn's signature works are predominantly audio-focused and she regularly collaborates with sound artist extraordinaire Bob Scott. 

Roslyn’s site-responsive projects include: Cell 26, an audio experience for a prison cell (Ulumbarra, former Bendigo Gaol, VIC), Sea Stories, an audio experience for sunrise over Broadbeach (Festival 2018, Commonwealth Games Arts & Culture Program, Gold Coast, QLD) and The Nightline (co-created with Bob Scott) a theatrical audio experience about the city at night, inspired by the voices of the sleepless commissioned by Utp & RISING 2021, followed by seasons at Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Bleach* Festival. In 2024 The Nightline will have its first international season at Carrefour international de théâtre in Quebec City, Canada .

In 2019, Roslyn received a special Green Room Award for Technical Achievement in acknowledgement of her inventive series of audio-theatre works. In 2014, Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday was nominated for 6 Green Room awards and won the award for Outstanding Writing/Adaptation for the Australian Stage, as well as a Best Lighting Design for Paul Jackson. Her productions have also been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, two Helpmann Awards, two Sydney Theatre Awards and an AWGIE Award. A trilogy of Roslyn's headphone verbatim plays, titled Acts of Courage, is available through Currency Press. She is also a contributing author on VERBATIM Staging Memory & Community edited by Paul Brown (Currency Press, 2010).

Roslyn is the host and producer of Audiosketch, a Chamber Made podcast dedicated to innovative artists working across performance, sound & music. She is also a sought after dramaturge, industry mentor and guest speaker in the field of documentary and audio-driven performance projects, where her client list includes: Victorian College of the Arts, Back to Back’s CAMP, Chamber Made’s Hi-Viz, Playwriting Australia, SBS Online, Performing Lines’ Regional Artist Residencies, Liveworks, Australian Theatre Forum, Blame the Shadows Collective, James Mangohig, Tilman Robinson, Spacefloss, Eve Beck, Johanna Bell, Alyson Evans, David Williams, Rani P Collaborations, Eliza Hull, Lemony S Puppet Theatre, Darius Kedros, Brienna Macnish, Fleur Kilpatrick, Sweatshop, Wheeler Centre, ShopFront, Utp, Griffin Theatre Company’s Storylab, Melbourne Fringe workshops and Melbourne Festival’s inaugural Director’s Lab curated by Daniel Clarke.

Roslyn is currently part of VicScreen’s Frame Doc Lab 2024 cohort, where she is developing a new-media audio installation concept, working title The Enormous Radio, in collaboration with writer/artist Sarah Walker. Roslyn Oades & Collaborators was an inaugural recipient of the Sidney Myer Fund, Arts & Humanity Capacity Building Stream (2015-16). Past residencies include: Chamber Made’s 2023 Hi-Viz Satellites Lab, Artist-in-residence with Urban Theatre Projects for RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW (2016-18), 2013 Director-in-residence at Malthouse Theatre and Artist-in-residence with Campbelltown Arts Centre for Siteworks 2011. 

Alongside her theatre practice, Roslyn works as a voice artist in film, TV, radio & audiobook narration. Voice Bio >>